Help, time to insulate and Dad lost instructions! Brick vs. board/blanket?

[motowbrowne]

I suppose I can't hold it against him, but I bought a used Waterloo 2x10 this spring and it came with a bricking diagram which now can't be found. So... my question now is, what to do to insulate my arch? I have all of the bricks that came out of the arch as well as two bags of vermiculite, which I think fit in there somewhere. I am under the impression that the new method of insulation involves brick only in the firebox with or without archboard behind it. And then archboard on the rest of the arch with ceramic blanket on top of that. I really don't know where to go from here, I talked to someone at Maple Hollow which is near my location and that's kind of where I got the basic idea that I have now. I would really appreciate any advice that you could lend me or if you could point me in the direction of a good resource where I could find the information that I am looking for.

Thanks as always, this forum is an amazing resource,
Ryan

[Bucket Head]

Well, everybody is going to give their two cents to you on this one! Here's mine. First, bricks offer next to no insulation value. They are for putting in front of whatever insulation you decide to use, so it does not get damaged while loading wood into the fire box. My arch is lined with the 2600 degree rated blanket type insulation and the bricks only line the firebox. I have been very happy with this arrangement since installing it.

Steve

[Brent]

From the supply of 2 bags of vermiculite, I would presume that this is a raised flue rig. If the arch is 10-12" deep under the flue pan, then the manufacturer only made one model arch for both raised flue and drop flue. If a drop flue pan goes on, the flues hang down within 2-3 inches of the back of the arch, leaving enough space for insulation and bricks. If it's a raised flue, you have a huge void under the flues - 10 to 12" deep. The vermiculite is a cheap, light good insulator to fill the voild. On top of the vermiculite you may want to put a layer of half bricks or some arch board ... it's optional, but you will want to fill it to within 1/4 to 1/2" of the bottom of the flues. You'll have to build a dam of bricks near the stack to keep the vermiculite in place and create a large enough channel for the smoke/hot air to flue down, then under the stack and up.